Media News
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Alarm over bill that would extend death penalty to online crimes
Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by a draft law that would extend
the death penalty to crimes committed online. Passed by parliament on
first reading on 2 July, the proposed law would, for example, apply the
death penalty to bloggers and website editors who 'promote corruption,
prostitution or apostasy.' Submitted by a score of pro-government
parliamentarians and consisting of 13 articles with the declared aim of
'reinforcing the penalties for crimes against society's moral security,'
the bill was passed on first reading by 180 votes in favour, 29 against
and 10 abstentions. Article 2 of the bill lists the crimes that are
already subject to the death penalty, including armed robbery, rape and
creating prostitution networks. If the law is adopted, 'the creation of
blogs and websites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy' will
also become capital crimes. According to article 3, judges will be able
to decide whether the person found guilty of these crimes is 'mohareb'
(enemy of God) or 'corrupter on earth.' Article 190 of the criminal code
stipulates that these crimes are punishable by 'hanging' or by
'amputation of the right hand and left foot.'
(Reporters Without Borders)
Other stories:
EJC Press Releases
New website reaches out to EU Neighbourhood Journalists
Discovering the heart of a story in the European Union is difficult. Cutting through the red tape of Brussels can be even more difficult - especially from afar.
The European Neighbourhood Journalism Network (ENJN) can help.
The foremost aim of the ENJN is to help journalists from southern Mediterranean, Eastern European and southern Caucasus countries make sense of the EU. At the same time, the ENJN will facilitate networking between journalists from these regions with the goal of building bridges within the neighbourhood.
The website contains background information on the European Neighbourhood Policy as well as the networking effort. It will continue to develop and offer tools to help network participants reach a better understanding of newsworthy neighbourhood issues. Journalists can also use it to connect with colleagues, trainers, schools and the key people involved in the network.
This deep resource is part of a 30-month media training and networking project. The project’s objective is to train journalists in the European Neighbourhood and to provide these media professionals with their own platform in the dialogue taking place at so many levels across the region.
The project’s 40 local training sessions start in June in countries such as Armenia, Jordan and Egypt. The project will also seek continued in-depth consultation with the region’s media on matters of importance to the profession and to society in general.
The ENJN is operated by an international consortium of media experts - the Thomson Foundation (UK), the European Journalism Centre (Netherlands), the International Federation of Journalists (Belgium), Management Partners (UK) and BBJ consult (Belgium).
The project operates with funds from the European Commission, within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy. It is a follow-up to the successful ”Europe for Mediterranean Journalists” initiative.
Posted on June 6, 2008 by EJC
Filed under announcements.
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Featured Resource:
The Media Self-Regulation Guidebook
If you don’t be the boss of you, somebody else will be.
That’s the underlying theme stressed in The Media Self-Regulation Guidebook, published this spring by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
This 100-page guide is available to order, free of charge, in French, English and Russian. It carefully chronicles steps unregulated media groups can take to become more self-regulating. The guide is structured in a Q&A format, proffering logical questions and then giving lucid answers in concise sentences. This creative format easily facilitates practical consideration of a rather serious topic.
The book is useful for editors, publishers and owners. It gives well thought-out advice and offers short theoretical clues as to why it provides the advice it does.
Self-regulation can save a lot of money. More importantly, codes of ethics can, when publicised and respected, increase a newsgathering operation’s credibility with – and accountability to - the public.
“Respect for a visible code of ethics significantly reduces the risk of statutory intervention and expensive legal action. The alternative to a code is the courtroom.”
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